I originally wrote a version of this at 1am last night. After much hate on twitter about ‘lazy writing’ (I was tired…) I’ve decided to flesh it out a bit. My point however remains the same. I just don’t get it…

Congratulations to Speech Debelle for winning the 2009 Mercury Music prize however I can’t help feeling that there were better albums that should have not only have been nominated but also won.

On one hand, it’s a good thing that Big Dada (Speech Debelle’s record label) have been recognised with an award for the kind of work they do – with the exception of a couple of artists (Roots Manuva & Ty who both definitely deal with the real) they seem to specialise in Hip Hop influenced, experimental, left field beats that is pretty much unique to them as a label and after many nominations, I believe this is Will Ashon & the crew’s first win. On the other hand, “Speech Therapy” just wasn’t the ‘album of the year’ that the Mercury Music Prize was supposed to be awarded to and to be honest, it is far from the best Big Dada album that has been nominated over the years (both Ty’s “Upwards” and Roots Manuva’s “Run Come Save Me” were nominated a few years ago and are both brilliant albums).

There were a large number of great albums nominated this year and it was quite telling that I’d bought a large number of the Mercury nominated albums before they were nominated this year. Out of the albums that made the cut in 09, I personally think the Mercury should have gone to either Friendly Fires, The Invisible, Florence & The Machine or La Roux over Speech Debelle and this opinion is coming from someone who has spent time with each of those albums after buying each of them (yes, I bought them. With my own money. Legally) In fact, with Speech Debelle’s, I spent time on my honeymoon to sit down with the album to see if I was missing something.

I’d been hearing a lot of big things about her but something wasn’t right for me. Being someone who spent a lot of time, effort, money and energy into the UK Hip Hop scene in the past, I’d never heard of Speech Debelle – yet here she was signed to Big Dada, getting Radio 1 airplay from DJ’s who’s taste I respect and rate and also getting big write ups in every ‘reputable’ music paper. I’d been sent a promo of the single “The Key” but only after hearing Colin Murray rinsing it on radio. The single was ok but there were so much more better things out there so it didn’t make rotation on my show however after the album was released, I spent my £7.99 and downloaded it from iTunes, loaded it onto my iPod and sat down with it on the beach beside the pool – a setting that can make any music sound amazing…but I just didn’t get the hype.

Coming at the album from a HipHop perspective, it did nothing for me. Some good instrumentation and ideas but the execution is where it’s lacking. At best as an emcee, she sounds like a lazier, 2nd rate female version of Roots Manuva – an obvious yet right comparison as Rodney was the emcee her producer Wayne Lotek made his name from. When you listen as a HipHop fan who knows a little about the technicality of emceeing, their flows, rhyme schemes and devices are very similar however while RM sounds unique, SdB feels contrived. Maybe it’s because I’m listening to the album as a HipHop fan? Maybe it’s because Speech Debelle’s album is not HipHop?

As for the argument of the win being a nod to Big Dada, label mate Roots Manuva’s album “Slime & Reason”  was to me a MUCH better, more musically exciting and boundary pushing album than “Speech Therapy”. As for the argument that it’s good for UK HipHop that she won, just because she raps, doesn’t mean “Speech Therapy” is a HipHop album. Hell, if we’re talking about HipHop originating from our fair shores, Bashy’s “Catch Me If You Can” is a much worthier contender for an album of the year award than “Speech Therapy”.

It’s a controversial topic but what do you think?